It is very interesting to watch the early works of some well-known directors, such as Hitchcock's love triangle in his early years, Kurosawa also shot the propaganda film of World War II in his early years, and "The Human Torch" as Martin Scotia Sett's lesser-known work in his early years is indeed not as stunning as his later masterpieces, but some scenes are indeed worth recalling.
Because the name "Cold-Blooded Torch" is too sloppy, so I want to change the title of this movie first. The original name of the movie is "Boxcar Bertha", Bertha is the name of the heroine, and Boxcar Bertha is more like a nickname, because the heroine Most of the time in the movie is in Boxcar (train car) and along the train, so it is called a "cold-blooded Torch" that has nothing to do with the content of the film, including the English title, I think it is similar to "The Girl Chasing the Train" Such a title is much more appropriate.
The film is a 1930s-era "hermaphrodite" type story set in a train, where Bertha takes a train after her father's death and begins her journey, encountering Bill, a railroad-defying Robin Hood-esque character, along with her. We met Rake again on the next journey, and also met Von, a former friend who was a black man. After Bertha robbed a few people from prison, the four of them embarked on a career of looting trains.
It is worth mentioning that Martin did not have as much control over the film at that time as in the later period, so at the request of the investor, he added a lot of bridges that were obviously to please the audience. For example, there are nude scenes every 20 minutes, such as the exaggerated shootout at the end, although these are indeed not Martin's style, the shootout at the end does make the film much more watchable.
In terms of story, the movie has put a lot of effort into the creation of the heroine Bertha. Although the actress Barbara Hirsch has since won two consecutive Cannes Film Festival actresses, she was still immature during the filming of this film, but this It seems to correspond to Bertha's character. She looks very stubborn but she is very shrewd. At first glance, she will throw a wink at any time, but Bertha is actually a very single-minded and affectionate person.
About Bertha, a very interesting episode is that she came to a certain place and saw everyone throwing dice to gamble, so she stepped forward to play, and won one time, everyone encouraged her to come a second time, and she also won the second time, She won until the fourth time, then stopped. Although this gamble seems to be a game of pure probability, and the heroine is lucky enough to win four games in a row, but I can't help thinking that the heroine will never be as ignorant as she is, maybe the group of men think she is easy to get caught Cheating, she will continue to encourage her to have another dish.
In addition to the main story of "Train Thief", the movie also focuses on the contradiction between blacks and whites at that time. The heroine Bertha is naturally good partners with black Von, but when Bill was caught and had a happy conversation with Von, the prison guard called him. For nigger lover, and immediately went up to violence, and then Von also suffered some different treatment as a black man. In addition to white people's prejudice against black people, during the reunion of Bertha and Von, Von took Bertha into a black bar, and the camera kept calling the black people to see Bertha's strange eyes. It can be seen that the gap between black people and white people is two-way. and deep. Martin's attention to race in his early works is already worthy of recognition.
Of course, since it is named "Boxcar", Bertha's journey naturally starts and ends on the train. Although it is not as unreasonable and sudden death as "The Male and Female Thief", this film also gives us a very exciting ending.
After Bill escaped from prison, Von took Bertha to reunite with Bill, but the police immediately arrived and took the two away, and Bill was nailed to the train car and let him bleed to death. This is obviously a religious symbol, although I personally think that It's not necessary, but at least from the setting of the scene, this way of dying like a martyr is also very beautiful.
Von arrives, kills the police, and saves Bertha, but the train starts to move, and Bertha follows the carriage with Bill pinned to it, all the way, all the way, but this time, the train doesn't become a blessed place for Bertha to escape or meet people, the train Gradually accelerating, Bertha was dropped into the distance.
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